, 1887-03-09
DOGS OF coNsTANrINoPLe.
Ours Who Have q Sort of Honor and
Respect for tho Proprleties.


One hears SO much of the dogs of Con-
stinople that he goes there quite prepared
to be disappointed and expecting to find
that their number has been greatly ex-
aggerated, and that they are not treated
with the respect which travellers report.
But they are there in great quantities, and
on bright days sunny parts OF the streets
are fairly paved with them. They lie
down in the middle of the streets, and it
rarely suggests itself to them to move.
The drivers of carriages and wagons turn
out for them; persons OF foot step over
or around them. And there they remain
stretched out at full length, either asleep
or blinking their eyes lazily. But it is
late at night tha4 they come out in force.
Each collection Of dogs has its W dis
trict, and wo betide the stranger canine
that dares to invade its sacred precincts.
CHANGING out of the hotel window into
the narrow street on which it opened one
evening about s o'clock, which was a
little late in the afternoon for the dogs
to be out summing themselves, and a little
early for them to be out for their night
duties, 1 could see only q couple of dogs
wandering about listlesly. Around the
corner from another street came q third
dog, not at all different in build, shape
or color from the two in sight. He seemed
to be moving along carelessly, indiffer-
emily, and without evil intent.
But he went q little too far and crossed
the forbidden line. Suddenly there wa
a dash, a bowling, q yelping, and in ten
seconds not two, but fifteen dogs had
pounced upon the newcomer, and had
not some passing Turk rushed in among
them and kicked them aside they would
have made short work of the poor tres
passer. But it showed the jealousy with
which the Constantinople dogs guard
what they consider their territorial rights
and that they will brook no foreign in
vasion. Efforts ave been made to get
rid of them, but the natives regard them
as sacred animals; and there is no ques-
ton that, in the absence of q better SAM
tary system, they are absolutely neces-
sary to the health of the city. For they
are the s~cavengers. They eat anything
and everything. The inhabitants throw
the remains of food into the streets, and
the dogs instantly devour them.
And there is withal q sort of honor and
respect for the proprieties of things in the
Constantinople dogs. One rarely sees
hiitIl tOu1ll va ID IIOb ttAANC "
them. In front of the little butcher
shops meat is often seen hanging down
close to the ground. Dogs are running
around. Sometimes they stop and look
at the tempting morsels, but they never
nose and smell them, and the butchers
seem TO have so much confidence in their
good behavior that they do not drive
them away; in fact, they pay no atten-
ton to them. The ~Constantinople dog is
a mongrel animal, and is a combination
of many breeds. The grand and final re-
suit has been a yellow cur, lean and
lanky, but OF considerable size, with
sharp pointed ears and rather a bright
and intelligent face, a little careworn and
yet saucy, like that of the street gamin
who has knocked about and been thrown
on his own sources from his birth.
TIL night is their particular time, and
not infrequently they make it some
what disagreeable for the passer by.
But a few sharp kicks, or, better still, a
few blows from a stout stick, easily drive
them off.
But not the Ihost pleasant part of q
walk through an unlighted street on a
dark night, as one is hurrying along, is
to place his foot on a soft, pulpy mass,
which quivers and yields and then rises
with an unearthly howl an6 shoots Off
yelping into the darkness. And though
n has merely stepped III one of the
sleeping dogs of Constantinople, it makes
his blood run cold, and it is some time
before he can plant his feet down without
carefully feeling to learn what may be
the substance of the pavement on which
he walks. -Constantinople Cor. CHICAGO
Tribune.